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Researcher: Gender plays role in racial profiling

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- There is more to police profiling than just race.

A Kansas State University researcher has found that gender plays a role too.

The Topeka Capital-Journal (http://bit.ly/NAbmD3 ) reported that Jeremy Briggs has been analyzing traffic stop data. It already was known that white women are less likely to be ticketed, searched or arrested than men.

But Briggs says black and Hispanic women are ticketed, arrested or searched during traffic stops more often than white women and at a level comparable to white men.

The sociology doctoral candidate also found black drivers overall were more than twice as likely as white drivers to be arrested. And black men were 2 1/2 times as likely as white men to be arrested.

Briggs says gender should be part of the larger racial profiling discussion.